Gil Santos signs off after 38 years as Boston radio station’s sports voice

Friday

Jan 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2009 at 1:37 PM

After 38 years of doing morning sports reports on WBZ radio, Gil Santos will be able to sleep in, starting next week. On Friday, Santos made his final early morning drive from his Raynham home to the WBZ studios in Brighton and delivered his final weekday sportscasts, something he began doing in 1971.

Glen Farley

Punxsutawney Phil, meet Raynham’s Gil. Many miles from Punxsutawney, Pa., Raynham resident Gil Santos is prepared to stage his own observance of Groundhog Day on Monday.
After 38 years of doing morning sports reports on WBZ radio, he’ll be able to sleep in.

“If I wake up on Monday morning at 3 o’clock and it’s snowing, I’ll know full well that I can just jump back into bed and wake up when I please,” Santos said. “If there’s a foot of snow out there, I’ll wait until my snowplow guy comes over and plows the driveway out and I don’t have to worry about it.

“I won’t have to get out there and scrape it (snow) off and then be on the edge of my seat driving in to get here. That’s going to be a great relief.”

Morning drive time in the Greater Boston area won’t be the same.

Earlier today, Santos made his final early morning drive from his Raynham home to the WBZ studios in Brighton and delivered his final weekday sportscasts, something he began doing in 1971.

“Certainly, this is going to be easier,” said Santos. “No more getting up at 3:30 and driving through snow and ice. Earlier this winter, I came through a snow storm and then the next one was the ice storm and I said, ‘You know what? I really, really don’t need to do this anymore.’ It does tend to wear you down.

“It’s not a difficult job. It’s not like digging a ditch or breaking rocks or working as a longshoreman or a fisherman or any of those physically demanding jobs,” he said. “I mean, if you’re a fisherman, the boat could sink at any minute.

“But the demands on your personal life are difficult, because you have to get to bed early, you’ve got to get up early, and you’ve got to fight through bad weather to get here.

“I was set to do another year because I like to work and you work with creative people and it’s a lot of fun. But after sliding down my street, my common sense was telling me, ‘Before you find yourself wrapped around a tree, enough is enough.’”

Which isn’t to say Santos will fall completely silent. He’s already looking ahead to what will be his 33rd season as the radio voice of the New England Patriots.

“I spoke with Mark Hannon (the general manager at Patriots flagship station WBCN-FM) and he said, ‘When you’re ready to retire, let me know. Until then, you keep doing the Patriots,’” Santos said.

In his long career at WBZ, Santos worked alongside some legends of Boston radio.

“(Tom) Cuddy and I always got along very well. Jonny Miller, the salt of the earth, has done such a great job getting me Red Sox sound over all of these years. The guy is phenomenal for getting interviews. He’s been such a key guy. ...Anthony Silva in the afternoon, Diane (Stern). ...It’s just been an awful lot of fun. I’ll miss the people I worked with.”

Now, at 70, Santos looks forward to spending more time with his family – wife Roberta, their children, Mark and Kathleen (and her husband, John Letterio), and grandchildren Jacob, 12, and Hannah, 8.

“Roberta and I were teenage sweethearts. We’ll be married 48 years in April,” Santos said. “We have two terrific kids. We have two phenomenal grandchildren.

“Now I’ll be able to watch Jacob play hockey, and he’s a good young player. I can watch Hannah, and she’s a good young softball player who takes drama classes and singing and has been on stage performing. She’s got some of her grandfather’s ‘ham’ in her. So that’s all part of moving on from this to the next phase of my life.”

Looking back at the previous phase, Santos is grateful for where he’s been.

“A few weeks ago, I read a column in USA Today. Some guy wrote to try a party game, or the next time you’re with friends to try to sum up your life in six words. I read that and thought, ‘That’s interesting. Sum up your life in six words.’ Then I thought, ‘That’s easy. I can do that with no problem: I’ve been a very lucky man.’”